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Villanova Basketball’s All-Time Assist Leaders: 2019 Update

Phil Booth led the Wildcats in assists with a career high in 2019

NCAA Basketball: Big East Tournament Final-Villanova vs Seton Hall Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

With the 2019 season over and the Villanova Wildcats holding Big East regular season and tournament titles, it’s time to update the record books. The Wildcats said goodbye to two of the greats this season, but their names and numbers will live on in the All-Time Stats. This week we’ll be going through the five major stat categories and updating them with the accomplishments from the past year.

Our next stat to update is assists. Despite not having a true point guard on the team, this year’s squad really showcased Jay Wright’s concept of the “Nova Guard”. That is to say a combo guard that can do a bit of everything including creating for themselves and others. The result was Villanova’s best team Assist% (Assists/Field Goals Made) since the 2016 National Championship season, and a Top 50 rank in the country.

The player most responsible for that was Phil Booth, who accounted for more than 27% of the team’s assists this season with a team and career high 137. That was enough to push Booth and his 374 career assists into the Top 20 in All-Time assists for Villanova. That puts him smack between two other greats, White Rigsby and Lance Miller.

Looking ahead to 2020, Collin Gillespie (131) is on pace to break into the 200 assist club in his junior season.

Villanova’s All-Time Assist Leaders

Player Years Rank Fr. So. Jr. Sr. Total
Player Years Rank Fr. So. Jr. Sr. Total
Kenny Wilson (1985-89) 1 145 159 170 153 627
Stewart Granger (1979-83) 2 70 165 183 177 595
Alvin Williams (1993-97) 3 88 159 177 129 553
Ryan Arcidiacono (2012-16) 4 119 118 129 169 535
Chris Ford (1969-72) 5 x 117 238 145 500
Rory Sparrow (1976-80) 6 112 153 103 127 495
Corey Fisher (2007-11) 7 92 107 129 159 487
Scottie Reynolds (2006-10) 8 133 113 128 108 482
Joe Rogers (1973-77) 9 67 136 118 153 474
Gary McLain (1981-85) 10 58 88 160 150 456
John Celestand (1995-99) 11 44 121 148 137 450
Jonathan Haynes (1992-95) 12 x 137 177 132 446
Jalen Brunson (2015-18) 13 100 148 184 x 432
Mike Nardi (2003-07) 14 130 107 62 124 423
Randy Foye (2002-06) 15 90 127 99 100 416
Kerry Kittles (1992-96) 16 79 109 115 105 408
Chris Walker (1988-92) 17 41 128 139 96 404
Whitey Rigsby (1974-78) 18 51 90 116 136 393
Phil Booth (2014-19) 19 51 85 101 137 374
Lance Miller (1989-93) 20 79 87 91 80 337
Jermaine Medley (1997-01) 21 71 42 107 110 330
Maalik Wayns (2009-12) 22 42 148 133 x 323
Derrick Snowden (2000-04) 23 62 125 108 27 322
Gary Buchanan (1999-03) 24 87 103 78 44 312
Harold Pressley (1982-86) 25 52 74 87 87 300
Mark Plansky (1984-88) 26 34 63 58 136 291
Dwayne McClain (1981-85) 27 75 54 81 77 287
Tom Ingelsby (1970-73) 28 x 136 72 71 279
Josh Hart (2013-17) 29 30 53 77 106 266
Reggie Redding (2006-10) 30 27 59 116 56 258
Doug West (1985-89) 31 32 51 82 92 257
Tom Sienkiewicz (1977-81) T-32 28 71 83 69 251
Brian Lynch (1996-00) T-32 28 31 78 114 251
Howard Brown (1995-99) T-34 33 43 92 80 248
Darrun Hilliard (2011-15) T-34 28 56 90 74 248
Allan Ray (2002-06) 36 46 96 57 45 244
Wali Jones (1961-64) T-37 x x x x 233
John Pinone (1979-83) T-37 44 61 67 61 233
Harold Jensen (1983-87) 39 27 38 85 81 231
Ed Pinckney (1981-85) 40 45 57 53 71 226
Ed Hastings (1970-73) 41 x 22 109 88 219
Kris Jenkins (2013-17) 42 21 34 87 73 215
Marc Dowdell (1988-92) 43 24 39 71 73 207
Donte DiVincenzo (2015-18) 44 65 139 x x 204
Steve Lincoln (1976-80) 45 12 76 79 33 200

*Villanova lists Wali Jones as having 233 career assists, although the stat wasn’t officially recorded until after he played.

**Donte DiVincenzo’s freshman season and Phil Booth’s junior season also include stats from their shortened redshirt years